This Vegan Chickpea Eggplant Tagine is the perfect warming, filling and comforting yet healthy meal.
I absolutely love the combination of the intensely savoury, subtly-spiced sauce that envelops the meltingly soft aubergine and nutty chickpeas, which all pairs perfectly with the fluffy quinoa.
Pomegranate arils add sweet and juicy pops of colour, whilst the pistachio dukkah offers extra fragrance and a beautiful crunchy texture. This was actually my first time making dukkah, a Middle Eastern spice blend that I've been reading about a lot recently.
It certainly didn't disappoint, and honestly made the tagine taste much, much better. It's really easy to make, and if you have a spare couple of minutes on your hands, I'd really recommend making it.
Finally, I like to drizzle over a little lemon-tahini sauce, which works well to cut through the richness of the stew.
If you're a little unsure of the quinoa, you can of course serve it with couscous (which is much more traditional), rice or maybe even buckwheat?
I love eating it with quinoa (and I prefer the white one here rather than tricolour quinoa), as it is fluffier and absorbs the flavours of the stew a little better.
These Chickpea Aubergine Tagine Quinoa Bowls are easy enough to make for a quick weeknight dinner, but also special enough to serve to guests. Leftovers are the dream, both freezing and reheating extremely well.
Former delicious stew-like recipes, check out my:
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Vegan Chickpea Eggplant Tagine (GF)
Ingredients
For the tagine:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cm (½ inch) fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne chilli pepper, to taste
- 2 red peppers, diced
- 1 aubergine (eggplant), diced
- 4 pitted dates roughly chopped (or sub dried apricots or prunes)
- 400 g (14oz) tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 vegetable stock cube (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 230 ml (1 cup) tinned tomatoes
- Bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped
For the dukkah:
- Handful of pistachios
- Pinch of ground cumin
- Pinch of sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
For the tahini sauce:
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Salt, to taste
- Few tablespoons of water
To serve:
- Cooked quinoa
- Pomegranate arils
Instructions
For the tagine:
- Heat up oil in a pot and once hot, add the onion, garlic and ginger
- Fry for 5 minutes until softened
- Add all the spices and fry until fragrant
- Add all the rest of the ingredients with enough water to cover, and bring to the boil
- Once boiling, turn down the heat and cover with a lid. Let simmer for around 20 minutes, until the aubergine is soft - stir occasionally, and add more water if necessary
For the dukkah:
- Add all ingredients to a dry frying pan and fry for 5-10 minutes, until the nuts and seeds are nicely toasted - be careful not to burn them
- Crush using a pestle and mortar or spice blender, until it forms a slightly chunky powder
For the tahini sauce:
- Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well
- Add more water depending on how thin you'd like the sauce to be
To serve:
- Place quinoa in bowls, top with a few ladlefuls of the tagine, scatter over pomegranate arils, sprinkle over the dukkah and add a few dollops of the tahini sauce
- Leftovers freeze and reheat very well
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Laurel
I recently fell head over heals for dukkah and CANNOT even wait to give this recipe a try! It looks so amazing.
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Yes dukkah is amazing isn't it! Thank you so much Laurel, I hope you love it!
Uma
Made this the other day - was worried that it smelt a bit strange whilst cooking but it tasted amazing!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Chloe
Yum! Didn’t have red peppers left so I used a courgette chopped nice and chunky.
So nice! Really easy to cook and just feels nice and hearty.
I preferred straight tahini instead of the sauce and haven’t tried the dukkah yet so that’s next!
Thank you for the recipe:)
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you liked it!